Israel To Free 100 Prisoners

July 20, 1985|United Press International

JERUSALEM — Israel will release another 100 prisoners from the 435 remaining predominantly Shiite Moslem detainees whose freedom was demanded last month by hijackers of a TWA jetliner, the Defense Ministry said Friday.

Israel released 300 prisoners from the Atlit military prison near the northern port of Haifa on July 3, a day after the remaining 39 American hostages from the hijacked TWA jetliner were freed in Beirut.

The key demand of Shiite Moslem gunmen who commandeered TWA Flight 847 June 14 on a flight from Athens to Rome was the release of the prisoners.

Israel and the United States have repeatedly stated there is no connection between the freeing of the Americans and the phased release of the Lebanese prisoners.

The prisoners were rounded up in southern Lebanon during the latter part of Israel`s three-year occupation of the region and were among the 1,020 who were transferred April 2 to Atlit from an Israeli prison camp at Ansar as part of the withdrawal. They have been released in various numbers since then.

In Beirut, gunmen firing from a speeding automobile shot and wounded a Druse Moslem militia chief Friday, sparking new tensions between Moslem groups as President Amin Gemayel tried to arrange national unity talks.

The unidentified assailants sprayed Imad Nawfal, a senior official of the Druse Progressive Socialist Party militia, with automatic weapons fire, wounding him and his three bodyguards, in the apparent assassination attempt near the offices of west Beirut`s Channel 7 television station, police said.